New Mexico

Next stop on our mad dash to Utah was New Mexico. Since we moved pretty fast through Texas, we decided to spend 2 nights at Sumner Lake State Park for a couple of days of rest. We were very pleasantly surprised with this park! It was quiet and the campsites had a nice view of the lake. Sites had water and 30amp hookups, and some of them had very nice 3-sided shelters. Our RV was positioned perfectly for me to watch the sunrise each morning right from the bedroom window. It was the perfect place to recharge for a couple of days.

We got a nice new accessory for the RV. One of Deas’s favorite things to do is sit by a campfire, but we occasionally find ourselves at locations that don’t allow open flame fires. So he found this portable gas firepit at Lowe’s. He actually originally bought this for his dad for a gift, but his dad didn’t use it too much and ended up giving it back to us! The nights at Sumner Lake were a little chilly so we pulled it and and enjoyed it for the first time this trip. Deas is very happy to have it on board with us, but I think he now owes his dad a birthday present!

Our next stop was another Harvest Hosts stop, and this one may have been the best one yet. Wines of the San Juan is located in Blanco NM along the San Juan River. Much to our surprise, when we arrived we found out that they actually have a couple of water and 50 amp hookups! Score! The very nice owner, David, helped us get parked and then invited us in for a tasting. His wife Marcia was pouring the wine, and we learned that they actually live on the property. While we were enjoying the tasting, I noticed something out the window – a peacock was strutting by with his feathers all on display! In addition to the peacocks, they have guinea hens, geese, a few horses, and some cats wandering around. They built most of the buildings on the property themselves – they even milled all of the wood themselves! They host a lot of weddings, live music in the summer, and also host an annual art and wine festival. The whole place has a funky charm to it and we just fell in love with it.

We could have stayed here for days, but we had reservations the next day in Moab, so it was time to move on!

11 thoughts on “New Mexico”

Moab is one of my most favorite spots. I can’t wait to return. We were there for the month of April last year. The weather was perfect. Another couple followed us and stayed for May. It was way too hot, 90’s almost every day. Way too hot for day long hikes. Have fun! Can’t wait to see what you do!

We originally planned to do Moab in June last year, and it was way too hot by then. This year we had hoped to spend a week there, but I was so late in making a reservation that we couldn’t get a space anywhere for the weekend! We stayed 4 nights at the same park you did – Portal RV Resort. We thought about boondocking in the area this weekend but decided to head to Bryce instead. Moab post will be coming up shortly!

Thanks for introducing me to Harvest Hosts. It looks like a great way to experience some beautiful vineyards and countryside. Since we have gotten our gas fire pit we have not had a single campfire. I love the fact I can sit in front of it, be warm and mesmerized by the dancing flames, and go inside smelling smoke-free! 🙂

It really was a cool place! Make you sure you join Harvest Hosts if you want to stay here though – we were able to stay there as part of our membership. It’s only $40/year – we’ve definitely gotten our money’s worth out of it!

Thanks! We’ve only used it a few times at this point, so I can’t really say yet. Also, the valve it came with is leaking propane so we’ve had to stop using it until we can find a Lowe’s and try to get it replaced or fixed (we bought it from Lowe’s.) So that’s been a little frustrating!

I’m glad that Deas is happy with his portable campfire. We have had one for a little while and enjoy it when we can. It’s nice being able to just pull it out and have an instant campfire. No mess, no fuss.